We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship. C.S. Lewis

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one. C.S. Lewis

It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend his faults. So to love a man that you cannot bear to see a stain upon him, and to speak painful truth through loving words, that is friendship. Henry Ward Beecher

It is the best and truest friend who honestly tells us the truth about ourselves even when he knows we shall not like it. False friends are the ones who hide such truth from us and do so in order to remain in our favor. R.C.H. Lenski

It was the saying of a heathen though no heathenish saying, “That he who would be good, must either have a faithful friend to instruct him, or a watchful enemy to correct him. William Secker

I maintain that, if everyone knew what others said about him, there would not be four friends in the world. Blaise Pascal

Every man should keep a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends. Henry Ward Beecher

Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were the easiest for his feet. John Selden

Be a friend to thyself, and others will be so too. Thomas Fuller

A good friend is my nearest relation. Thomas Fuller

In matters of equity between man and man, our Saviour has taught us to put my neighbor in place of myself, and myself in place of my neighbor. Isaac Watts

Four of the Ten Commandments deal with our relationship to God while the other six deal with our relationships with people. But all ten are about relationships. Rick Warren

I can only hope that every minister could come to know friends as true, as faithful, and as genuine as I have come to know in C. J., Mark, and Lig. We are exhilarated in being together, and we take tremendous delight in each other. One of the problems we face in today’s church is that men are not often sustained by authentic friendships. This is especially deadly for pastors. Albert Mohler

Truths about Friendship – From the life of Paul in 2 Timothy 4:

1. Paul believed in the critical importance of having close friends – verses 9, 21a. 2. Paul knew from personal experience the pain and anguish of loneliness – verses 10b, 11a, 16a. 3. Paul knew the importance of having the right kind of friends: be discerning and selective – verses 14-15. 4. Paul knew from personal experience the pain of betrayal and abandonment – verses 10a, 16. 5. Paul had learned the importance of forgiving those who had failed him. In fact, he believed in giving old friends who had blown it another chance – verses 11b, 16b. 6. As you grow old in life, in addition to friends, you need books! – verse 13. 7. In the final analysis, when everything is said and done, Jesus will always be your best friend; the only friend you can always count on – verses 17-18. Sam Storms

Let those be thy choicest companions who have made Christ their chief companion. Thomas Brooks

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival. C.S. Lewis